Arrow rests for archery bows are well known. Generally stated, arrow rests are structures that are adapted to support a fore portion of the arrow while an archer draws the bow, prior to releasing the arrow. In their most simple forms, arrow rests comprise a static structure that engages a portion of the arrow. However, such structures may interfere with the flight of the arrow as it is first released from the bow, by engaging the shaft or the fletching of the arrow.
In order to minimize the chance of interference, it is known to provide arrow rests having a shallow, V-shaped member that engages only a small portion of the bottom of the shaft of the arrow. However, since such arrow rests lack structure that significantly restrains lateral movement of the arrow with respect to the arrow rest, the arrow may become dislodged from the arrow rest as the archer draws the bow, prior to the release of the arrow.
A number of designs have attempted to remedy the deficiencies of static arrow rests. These devices generally fall into two categories. The first category includes fork-like arrow rests that receive the shaft of the arrow between a pair of spaced arms. The spaced arms move in unison, typically by pivoting forward to drop away from the arrow at the time that the arrow is fired, to provide a substantially unobstructed flight path for the arrow. The second category of devices includes arrow rests having a pair of arms that are pivotally mounted with respect to one another along a pivot axis that is roughly aligned with the arrow shaft, such that the arrow is received between the arms, and the arms pivot away from one another at the time that the arrow is fired. With respect to both categories of devices, the movement of the arrow rest away from the arrow is typically actuated either by contact of the arrow with the arrow rest, by manual operation of a trigger at the time that the arrow is released, or by connection of a portion of the arrow rest to a bow string or a related component of the archery bow. After firing, these devices require that the arrow rest be cocked, that is, moved to a ready position such that another arrow may be received on the arrow rest.
It would be desirable to have an arrow rest that completely removes itself from the path of an arrow at the time that the arrow is released without the need for manual actuation of the arrow rest. It would further be desirable to have an arrow rest that moved itself to a ready position subsequent to passage of the arrow, to eliminate the need for cocking the arrow rest.